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Thanks! The Liechtenstein teams are in the Switzerland league structure, because they don't have their own national league. Here is the link for the 6th tier, but you can take over Vaduz with he default Switzerland league. Vaduz are the biggest club in Switzerland so it woulld be easier trying to improve the national team with them.

My best players are Sebastian Zimmermann, Sebastian Schneider, Karl-Heinz Heinrichs, Ernst Jung and Phillipp Bender. Their pictures are in the previous update

yeah i saw two or three before, impressed a lot, but didn't read the whole updates, really need such time, would love to read it at all when i can ! but what i meant are if they are the best players you have since you start the game ? from what i understand, this is 'Zimmermann' is the best one since you played the first time surely there is no way you produce such players at the start of this game, well, do you think you could do that earlier in your game by toturing ? and do you think specially training schedule would be helpful ?

you are playing a true game, in which way i like, apart from you don't use skins and backgrounds, where i feel it's good way to feel you are really at your club anyway, I'm really surprised you stated that long at one game, which i never did, as always change the club within 18-30 months maximum which i start at lower point

thanks for the link, willing to include the league in my next game, here is my game ( not updated until 23.12.2016 ) click here
wish to see your feedback on my sugggestion click here ( wrote it today ) , as i really relly on people like you for it, and looking forward for some help over it, if you kindly can help.

I would love if you beat Steaua, even though I'm Romanian. Well done getting past Dnipro, which is usually a really strong team.

Originally Posted by cswalk08

Congrats on staying up and good luck in a tough Euro League group!

Cheers! Most of the teams that should be stronger (like Dnipro, AZ and Olymipakos and FC CTwnte from a couple of years ago) aren't actually that strong. It's probably because I only have the Swiss leagues loaded, and also becuase the Swiss League is becoming a lot stronger (8th most popular league in Europe, behind England, Spain, Germany, Italy, France, Portugal and tied with the Netherlands). Actually, Young Boys regulary make it past the groups of the CL, and last season Zurich made it to the semis of the Europa League, with Basel making it to the quarters. They both lost to Arsenal who ended up winning the thing, so it's a sign that the Swiss league is getting pretty good!

Originally Posted by dvielis

I am sorry for Ventspils

So do I, I had a pretty good save with them in the first year that you could make custom leagues on FM (FM10 was it?) Got them to the Champions League final but couldn't win it, and I've had a soft spot for them ever since

Originally Posted by TheGreatTraveler

Good Group, could grab some points and maybe even qualify

Originally Posted by deltablue

Decent Group, but might still find it tricky at this stage.

Cheers! I think I should qualify, it isn't that difficult of a group really. And Zimmermann has enough class to carry us through pretty much every game!

Originally Posted by cerud

Ouch...my wife's background is Romanian...fell like I should have known that. Good thing she doesn't follow football like I do!

Probably for the best Just as long as she isn't from Steaua herself, then you might be in trouble

Originally Posted by Spurs_Q8

yeah i saw two or three before, impressed a lot, but didn't read the whole updates, really need such time, would love to read it at all when i can ! but what i meant are if they are the best players you have since you start the game ? from what i understand, this is 'Zimmermann' is the best one since you played the first time surely there is no way you produce such players at the start of this game, well, do you think you could do that earlier in your game by toturing ? and do you think specially training schedule would be helpful ?

you are playing a true game, in which way i like, apart from you don't use skins and backgrounds, where i feel it's good way to feel you are really at your club anyway, I'm really surprised you stated that long at one game, which i never did, as always change the club within 18-30 months maximum which i start at lower point

thanks for the link, willing to include the league in my next game, here is my game ( not updated until 23.12.2016 ) click here
wish to see your feedback on my sugggestion click here ( wrote it today ) , as i really relly on people like you for it, and looking forward for some help over it, if you kindly can help.

cheers !

None of the players I had at the start were good enough for really anything! It took a very long time for me to start producing decent players from my youth system, but even I'm surprised at how well they've turned out It's really just down to how well you can improve your youth system (Junior Coaching, Facilities, Recruitment). This save is pretty close at becoming my longest save, it is my longest since FM08 because it's the first year since then I've been truly able to get into the game. I'll have a look at your threads when I can

After managing to survive last season, Ruggell were looking forward to the new season to improve on there past positions. However, the Europa League would come first, and the Liechtenstein representative bowled over Bosnia's Travnik 6-1 on aggregate. Their first game of the league campaign would come against reigning champions Young Boys, and Ruggell would inflict a shock 1-0 win to start off the season. They followed this up with a win over Grasshoppers, and finished the opening month very strongly with 2 wins from 2.

August 2029

August began with the next match of the Europa League campaign, as Ruggell played Ventspils from Latvia. Goals from Schneider and Zimmermann ensured a 2-0 home win, before young striker Wolff and Bender scored in the away leg to secure a 4-1 aggregate win. Back in the league, Ruggell put down Vaduz 2-1, before slumping to a 5-3 loss to Xamax, before newly promoted Aarau also defeated the club 3-1. However, Ruggell returned to there winning ways in cup football, defeating Dnipro 4-1 and 1-0 in the Europa League to set up a group stage visit, as well as thrashing Heimberg 6-1 in the Swiss Cup.

September 2029

Ruggell faced Basel to kick off September, and the title challenger looked surprisingly flat as the Liechtenstein club ran over the top of them, winning 3-0. Up next was a cup game against FC Ferad, where injuries and a youth fixture prevented Ruggell from fielding a second string side! They pushed aside the 3rd tier team 4-0, before hosting AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League. It was a perfect start, as a hat trick from Zimmermann gave Ruggell a 3-1 win. However, their form would stop there, as Young Boys got revenge for the opening day defeat as they thrashed Ruggell 4-1. Things returned to normal as Ruggell thrashed Marco Reinach 8-1 in the cup, before Sion inflicted a 3-0 loss to the Liechtenstein club to ensure they finished September in 7th place.

It's been a bit of an erratic start. Zimmermann has essentially been carrying us (in fact, in a press conference a journalist said the "Many people have been saying the Zimmermann should be playing at a higher level as he has looked to be carrying your team), but in those games he hasn't been firing in we've lost pretty big. I'm a little bit apprehensive about losing him, but I know it's gotta happen eventually. I've set his asking price to 12mil, and while that staved off potential bidders in the PreSeason transfer window, Espanyol, Wolverhampton, Catania, Basel and AS Saint-Etienne are all interested in him now. He seriously is the best player in this division.

I feel sorry for Vaduz, they are well out of their league. They lost their best two players, Bachmann (the Liechtenstein national team captain) on a free transfers and Thimo Herzog (a really good attacking midfielder/striker) to Basel for 3.2mil, and haven't brought in adequate replacement. Looking through their team, they would struggle in the Challenge League. Could be the start of a decline for them.

What else? Well, Young Boys got a pretty tough group in the Champions League, with Real Madrid and Juventus. But they managed to beat Juventus in their first game! So they could qualifying for the knockouts again. Not really much else to talk about from the opening few months.

I'm thinking that I won't accept any bids this transfer window, but might sell him in the off season if the right offer comes along. I couldn't disrupt the team's harmony by getting rid of arguably the best player mid season.

I have found that you can keep the interested clubs away quite long if you just set a ridiculously high asking price. Might be a kind of bug, but try it and you might be able to hold on to him for some time. If not, it will help you get a lot of money for him.

On another note, brilliantly done mate. Have read and followed this thread for a while and am very impressed by your progress!

Bit erratic so far but it's still early days,if you can sort your form out then you could easily hit 3rd.Sucks to be Vaduz and good luck in keeping Zimmermann.

Cheers BWG, I think it's mainly the defence that's been hurting us We have no trouble scoring, but our full backs just aren't cut out for this level so teams find it easy to get around us.

Originally Posted by Thebaker

You should make sure Zimmermann's asking price is very high so you don't get any bids - about £20 million.

Originally Posted by TheGreatTraveler

Make sure you get 15+ million for Zimmerman.

I'm thinking 15mil will be the minimum that I will sell him for, the money will help the club invest in the youth system so it will be for a good cause.

Originally Posted by Pjotas

I have found that you can keep the interested clubs away quite long if you just set a ridiculously high asking price. Might be a kind of bug, but try it and you might be able to hold on to him for some time. If not, it will help you get a lot of money for him.

On another note, brilliantly done mate. Have read and followed this thread for a while and am very impressed by your progress!

Cheers Pjotas! I'm thinking that I'll sell him in the off season if I get a bid of 15mil+, which would be a lot of money for a transfer in Switzerland. I think the highest anyone has ever received for a player is about 11mil, and that's usually only 1 player a season. Granted, Zimmermann is probably the best player in the league at the moment and if clubs like Juventus want him enough, they will spend the money

Originally Posted by cerud

Start looking at potential replacements for Zimmerman now. Depending on the transfer fee you arrange, maybe you can use it for another player, get someone good, and make some cash

Originally Posted by williamshankley

From what I'm led to believe, Scarman isn't buying any players in this save, and just using his youth players

I'm sure what cerud means is that I can reinvest it in my youth system so I can get a better player in the future, right? Haha

Actually, if he did go I would have the talent in my youth team to step up (Wolff has had a pretty good season, and Bernd Bender is developing pretty well), so I'm not that worried about selling him.

Anyway, I have got up to the next update, but I won't be able to update until tomorrow cause I'm about to head out to a mates place to watch a little thing in Australia called State of Origin (What do you mean Rugby League is only popular in a couple of states in Australia? Are you telling me no one else in the world cares? ) So if there's any Queenslanders in my thread, get out for the night If not, carry on! Just a quick sum up of October - December, I'm still in 7th place, I finished top of my Europa League group somehow (and got some pretty good wins, including coming back from 2-0 down at half time to beat Spartak Moscow 3-2) and I play Valencia in the first knock out round. Finally, Tottenham have been the only team to make a bid for Zimmermann - 13 mil total, but with 9 mil of that spread over 18 months + 10% of profit from next sale + friendly. Not the best, so I negotiated up to 15mil + 50% of next sale. Needless to say, they didn't really like that and rejected.

Anyway, I have got up to the next update, but I won't be able to update until tomorrow cause I'm about to head out to a mates place to watch a little thing in Australia called State of Origin (What do you mean Rugby League is only popular in a couple of states in Australia? Are you telling me no one else in the world cares? ) So if there's any Queenslanders in my thread, get out for the night .

I found it tough to sell the only good goal scoring threat I had in my youth challenge, but you seem have quite a few options upfront. Hope you can get the money you want and it'll help out in the long run.

The Europa League was starting to hot up, and after silencing the critics with a 3-1 win over AZ Alkmaar in their opening group game, Ruggell were looking to win again in arguably the easiest of the games against Steaua. A brace from Alfons Wolff and goals from Zimmermann and Frick gave the Liechtenstein representatives a 4-2 victory. This was followed by another loss in the league, this time to Grasshoppers 4-1, however it would be Ruggell's turn to hand out a thrashing the game after, with Vaduz confronting the full force of the top Liechtenstein club and losing 7-1. That was followed by a 1-1 draw in Russia to Spartak Moscow, before Xamax were held to the same score the Ruggell Stadium. The Liechtensteiners finished out the month with a 6-0 win over 6th tier Farvagny/Ogoz in the cup.

November 2029

November resmed the league, and Aarau were able to hold Ruggell to a 1-1 draw, before Spartak Moscow took a 2-0 lead into half time at Ruggell Stadium. Little is known about what went on in the dressing room at half time, but the home side came out looking like a different team, as they went on to score 3 unanswered goals to win 3-2. This was followed with a home game to Zurich, in which the club took their momentum into the game to win 2-0. 3 days later, and a trip to Zurich saw them draw 1-1, before Basel ended their unbeaten run in the league with a 3-2 win. However, Martigny would be Ruggell's next victims in the cup, as the 2nd teir side struggled to press any advantage and lost 6-0.

December 2029

Another draw would great Ruggell in the opening game of December, as Sion held them to 2-2. A trip to the Netherlands would give Ruggell their first win of the month, as Zimmermann, Wolff and Heinrichs all scored in a 3-0 win. Ruggell returned to the league to face St Gallenn twice, but lost both games, firstly 5-2 away to the Swiss side, before losing 2-1 in front of their home fans. It wasn't all bad news for the club though, as Steaua would be their next victims in the Europa League, Ruggell winning 2-0, before 3rd ter side Locarno lost out 6-0 in the cup.

So we're still in the Swiss Cup and the Europa League, though I don't fancy our chances against Valencia. If we do somehow get a shock win, Besiktas or Juventus should definitely be too strong for us. We play another 3rd tier side, Zug in the Quarters of the Swiss Cup, so that should be another easy win. Looking to finally win a major trophy this season in the Swiss Cup, as I feel it is a winnable trophy at the moment. The league could be going better, I haven't won in 5 games but I'm not out of contention for a 6th place European spot grab yet. Need to improve our defence if we're to be any chance of challenging teams in this comp. Young Boys are once again finding their rhythm at the right time, and are now leading the league. I wouldn't put it past them to win a 8th title in 9 years. Zimmermann has simply been too good, I think I may sell him in July/August for some money, but only if the right bid comes along.

What a heartbreaking way to end qualification!!! Coming into the last round, we were happily on 15 points in the second place table. We just needed Austria to not take full points from Portugal and we would be through!! Not only that, but last placed Estonia surely wouldn't give us any trouble, right? It's the perfect time to blood a few new players into the side to look for the future. Well, Austria played their part well, and drew with Portugal. Our massive for and against we picked up against Kazakhstan would be invaluable and we would get a chance to qualfiying through the play....wait, what? Estonia beat us 5-2? And they jumped above Kazakhstan to completely change our 2nd placed league table position? What a cruel way to end the qualification. It's a mistake I'll never make again.

I found it tough to sell the only good goal scoring threat I had in my youth challenge, but you seem have quite a few options upfront. Hope you can get the money you want and it'll help out in the long run.

Yeah, we've been lucky in the past few years to have a number of decent strikers come through. Still would like to keep Zimmermann as he is simply ridiculous for us at the moment, but I know that's not possible in a league like Switzerland.

Doing well in Europe and good luck against Valencia.Sucks to be Vaduz right at this moment and unlucky on missing out like that in the qualifying with Liechtenstein.

It really was harsh, though it was my fault for underestimating Estonia like that.

Originally Posted by SRL88

You certainly have done exceptionally well in Europe. Good work .

Cheers SRL! It surprisingly gets better. Let's just say I started the game against Valencia in Spain and walked away from the computer, and I get back and it's 5-4 to Valencia. That game finished 5-5, I think that the defence forgot to turn up! We got knocked out by Besiktas, absolutely unbelievbale stuff by the team...I mean Zimmermann.

Originally Posted by deltablue

Really good stuff in Europe. I guess Vaduz are pointless now

Originally Posted by cerud

I'd feel bad it it were my team that allowed Vaduz to score

Originally Posted by cswalk08

-59 Goal differential for Vaduz? Yikes

All good things must come to an end though, Xamax must have really felt sorry for them and lost 1-0 Still, I've never seen a team do that bad.

Originally Posted by DazRTaylor

Just caught up on this thread - Lichtenstein 43rd in the world?

Great stuff!

Cheers mate! It's been pretty tough but things have start to look up for Liechtenstein!

A new year and a new decade to start off the second half of the Axpo Super League season, and Ruggell would face Young Boys. Ruggell started well, but Young boys got on the score sheet first. Schneider managed to equalise going into half-time, but from there it was all Young Boys as they ran out 3-1 winners. Ruggell then travelled to Spain, where they would face an impossible challenge in Valencia. However, Valencia forgot how to defend as the teams finished in a 5-5 draw. Ruggell took there rediscovered attacking prowess into their next league game against Grasshoppers and won 5-2, before welcoming Valencia to Liechtenstein and defeating them 3-2 to progress to the next round of the Europa League, shocking everyone.

March 2030

March began with a slightly easier task, a home game against winless Vaduz. However, Vaduz were starting to show some fight and it took a late goal from Ziereis to secure the win for Ruggell. The Liechtenstein club would then welcome Besiktas to Ruggell Stadium. The Turkish giants were too good for Ruggell however, and ran out 4-3 winners. Ruggell returned to the cup and thrashed 3rd tier Zug 6-0 to progress to the semis, before travelling to Turkey to finish the tie. Besiktas won 2-1 to win 6-4 on aggregate, and Ruggell's dream run ended. This seemed to take the wind out of Ruggell's sails, as they slumped to a 3-1 loss to St. Gallen, before bouncing back with a 1-1 draw to title contenders Basel. Ruggell rounded out the month by thrashing Sion 4-1.

That was an unbelievable few months! I never thought we would have beaten Valencia like. Zimmermann now has over 50 goals this season. We are into the semis of the Swiss Cup against Young Boys, which should be difficult depending on how they take the game. They are competing for top spot and they are in the quarters of the Champions League so they might slack off for the cup game. Seeing we still have heaps of games to catch up on, We could still easily finish in the top 4, maybe even above Zurich! Not likely but maybe at least the Europa League places. Vaduz finally won a game against Xamax, and drew with Aarau.

Finally, this is the group Liechtenstein have for the Euro 3032 qualifiers. Not the worst group, though Germany will probably thrash everyone.

Just looked into resigning Zimmermann to bump up his price, that's not gonna happen any time soon. His wage demands? $35,000 a week! Well, he is good enough to deserve wages like that, but we can only offer him $9,500 a week maximum. Luckily he has a contract until 2033, I know I can't keep him now!

Ruggell were coming off the back of a massive win over Sion, and were looking to push away from Aarau with a win. A Zimmermann hat trick answered their prayers as they won 3-0., However, Young Boys would inflict a 2-1 loss, before they held Xamax to a 1-1 draw. Zimmermann would score another hat trick as Ruggell thrashed Grasshoppers, before Vaduz almost gave them a scare as it took a late Schneider goal off the back of a dubious penalty to equalise. Xamax would also hold them to a draw, before the Liechtenstein club bowled over Zurich 2-1. However, their month would end in disappointment as Aarau defeated Ruggell 2-1.

May 2030

May began with Ruggell's Swiss Cup semi final against Young Boys. 90 minutes ended at 1-1, but Zimmermann scored the only goal of extra time to secure Ruggell's second ever final, to be played against Challenge League side Thun. The Liechtenstein club took their high into their next game where they defeated Zurich 3-2, before Basel brought them back to earth with a 3-0 thrashing. Ruggell improved to beat St Gallen 3-1, leaving them in the top 6, but Sion pushed them out on the final day with a 4-0 demolition.

June 2030

June signalled the Swiss Cup final, this season to be played between Super League side Ruggell and Challenge League side Thun. The Liechtenstein club went in a big favourites, and after 9 minutes Ziereis put them in front. Ruggell went 2-0 up after a Jimmy Duval own goal in the 27th minute, before another own goal, this time by Ruggell keeper Fritz Breu, gave Thun a sniff of hope. However, Zimmermann put the game to 3-1 right on half time to all but rule out a Thun victory. Ziereis doubled his tally in the second half, and the game finished 4-1. Ruggell lifted their first major Swiss trophy.

That cup victory confirmed that I can't qualify through the Swiss league system, which is fine. I'll just win the Europa League haha. In all, a fantastic season again by the club, though it was mainly thanks to Zimmermann's contributions.

Portugal continue under performing at major tournaments, while Netherlands and Germany also failed to get out of the groups. England lose on penalties again, so no real major news from this tournament Turkey winning was a bit of a shock though, seeing we had beaten them in qualifying.

Hey Scarman I fell in love with your post. I tried to do the same with my team (I made it up, it's called "Unió Catalunya) - it was supposed to play only with Catalan players (I'm sure you're famirialized with Basque nationality, Athletic Bilbao plays only with players from there. Well, Catalunya also feels like they should be independent from Spain, and say that they're catalan and not Spanish. Catalunya's capital is Barcelona)
But then I kinda gave up as I had to check where the players were born before signing them, and sometimes look it up in google. So slowly, it became a Spanish-only team, and with time, Spanish speaking only (Argentina, Colombia, Bolivia, etc). So it became much easier, I'm finishing 3rd. 4th for the last years in the first Spanish League. You motivated me to go back to my roots, and I'll try not to sign anyone else, slowly try to get rid of non-Catalan players (75% of the squad now), so it might take a while to do it without ruining the club).

Also, I remember signing a Liechtenstein player just for fun, as I giggled to find such talent from such a nation. 6 Months after I signed him Man City made an offer that i was forced to accept by the club, and took him away without ever playing for the first team. Is he better than your Zimmerman? I'd love to see a screenie

Here's Claus Endres - currently on loan from City to lower league clubs

Zimmermann is unstoppable in that league,good finish in 7th as well and you were not too far behind 4th place which shows how close it was.With your players still developing,it could be an exciting future.

Hey Scarman I fell in love with your post. I tried to do the same with my team (I made it up, it's called "Unió Catalunya) - it was supposed to play only with Catalan players (I'm sure you're famirialized with Basque nationality, Athletic Bilbao plays only with players from there. Well, Catalunya also feels like they should be independent from Spain, and say that they're catalan and not Spanish. Catalunya's capital is Barcelona)
But then I kinda gave up as I had to check where the players were born before signing them, and sometimes look it up in google. So slowly, it became a Spanish-only team, and with time, Spanish speaking only (Argentina, Colombia, Bolivia, etc). So it became much easier, I'm finishing 3rd. 4th for the last years in the first Spanish League. You motivated me to go back to my roots, and I'll try not to sign anyone else, slowly try to get rid of non-Catalan players (75% of the squad now), so it might take a while to do it without ruining the club).

Also, I remember signing a Liechtenstein player just for fun, as I giggled to find such talent from such a nation. 6 Months after I signed him Man City made an offer that i was forced to accept by the club, and took him away without ever playing for the first team. Is he better than your Zimmerman? I'd love to see a screenie

Here's Claus Endres - currently on loan from City to lower league clubs

Thanks, really makes me happy when someone posts something like that Good luck with making your team full of Catalan players, it might take a while but it will be an awesome accomplishment if you do that. As for Claus Endres, it's a bit hard to judge as they play different positions. They are both really good for their age, though Endres attribute spread makes him a lot more versatile than Zimmermann will ever be. It's always great to see players develop from smaller countries though

Originally Posted by B.W.G

Zimmermann is unstoppable in that league,good finish in 7th as well and you were not too far behind 4th place which shows how close it was.With your players still developing,it could be an exciting future.

Yeah if we had beaten Sion on the last day we would have finished 4th, I think that if Zimmermann destroys again this season we should finish fairly high up.

Originally Posted by cswalk08

I hope you gave the team a strong talking to after yielding a point to Vaduz

Originally Posted by cerud

You gave a point to Vaduz! Shame..... Also interesting to see Turkey win the World Cup!

It was our lowest point of the season, and their highest. Couldn't believe that had actually happened though, it took a Zimmermann dive (and I really think it was a dive even though we can't really see much on the match engine) to get the penalty! Turkey winning was really weird for me, seeing I had defeated them at one point in qualifying. Maybe that means that on our day we could win the World Cup

Originally Posted by buzz2k7

I hope all the big teams dont start poaching your players now :S

Same, that would be the worst thing for us. We could lose a few, but more than 1 in each position would hurt us massively.

-----------

One thing quickly, I feel like having a break from this save. It's not that I'm over it or anything, it's just that I've had a massive temptation to play a journeyman-like save lately after reading the threads on here. There just something that's been missing from this save, maybe it's the lack of leagues I loaded, the fact I'm not signing any one or something else, but I miss not being able to have the freedom to do really what I want. So I hink I'll start up a new save and thread sometime tomorrow.

Long story short, I still have unfinished business here, I just feel like doing something else for a while

Once you feel up to getting back to this thread, I'd love to hear your thoughts on selling Zimmermann. Presuming your long-term goal is to lift Liechtenstein to the top I would imagine at some point you will have to let some players go to bigger clubs than can be developed within the Swiss system.... Not to mention the money you would get could go along way towards building an even better youth system to develop better players and so on.

I know you said you might sell him in the summer, but how do you weigh the above against bringing more immediate success to Ruggell itself (which in turn will lift reputation, rating (of both club and nation), etc)?

Once you feel up to getting back to this thread, I'd love to hear your thoughts on selling Zimmermann. Presuming your long-term goal is to lift Liechtenstein to the top I would imagine at some point you will have to let some players go to bigger clubs than can be developed within the Swiss system.... Not to mention the money you would get could go along way towards building an even better youth system to develop better players and so on.

I know you said you might sell him in the summer, but how do you weigh the above against bringing more immediate success to Ruggell itself (which in turn will lift reputation, rating (of both club and nation), etc)?

When you get back to it, enjoy your holiday for now

Well, if the right offer came in, I would sell him, but last time I played the save interest was dropping off him for some reason. In fact, I've been pretty lucky throughout this save, pretty much none of my players were poached by big clubs. I'm not sure if it's down to the fact I don't have other leagues loaded or that reputation is just playing a massive part in it.

Originally Posted by Jpr

Just read the whole thread, highlight for me being when you finally got a striking partnership that turned those draws to wins to get out the challenge league.

amazing work, keep it up

Cheers! I think you meant the 3rd tier, cause I got out of the Challenge League in a season But yeah, that was definitely one of my favourite moments in the save as well!

Not ready to come back to this yet folks, just felt I needed to respond to some posts Still don't have the motivaqtion to play this and I'm enjoying my other save haha

So, I've started playing this save again I felt like, at the very least, I needed to finish Schneider's career off (currently 29), because he's been one of my favourite ever regens on FM. It's an obligation, really

Just as a sort of warm up to the Return of Ruggell, here's how all my different youth players, plus a couple extra who I haven't put as youth players for some reason, have developed over their career's.

Glad to be back with this save, really enjoying it again. For the sake of consistency, I'll keep with the update every 3 month system. Bit of early news, both good and bad. The good is that I have an extremely easy run to the Europa League group stage, playing Trans from Estonia, LASK Linz from Austria and now Linfield from N. Ireland, so that should definitely be another group stage appearance for us. Bad news is that Zimmermann is injured for 2 months, he won't be back until mid October. So that means he'll miss Liechtenstein's first 2 Euro 2032 Qualifiers against Malta and Slovenia.

Edit - Had no troubles with Linfield, beating them 6-1 on aggregate. Here's my Europa League Group -

Gotta be one of the closest groups in terms of geographical location. Should be able to beat Austria Wien and St Gallen to get out of the group. HSV will probably smash us though.

Only a few friendlies this season. The most exciting (disappointing) thing to come out of this transfer window was the sale of Karl-Heinz Heinrichs to West Ham for 1.4mil. Tottenham bid a few times for Zimmermann, but it was never at a good enough price.

July 2030

We drew Trans from Estonia in the 2nd Round of Qualification for the Europa League, and thrashed them 6-0 at home in the first game, with Zimmermann scoring 5. He continued his free scoring form against St Gallen, where he scored twice in a 4-2 thrashing, before landing another 2 in the 4-1 win over Trans away (making it a 10-1 win on aggregate), before scoring his final for the month agianst Zurich, where we were lucky enough to win 4-2. Great opening to the season, Zimmermann was on absolute fire.

August 2030

We continued where we left off in August, picking up a 3-1 win over Austrian side LASK Linz, before being held to a 0-0 draw against Thun. We completed the tie over Linz with a 2-1 win to set up a 4th round game with Linfield from N. Ireland. However, we then slumped to our first loss of the season, to Xamax who beat us 1-0. We turned that around for the rest of the month, however, winning 1-0 over Sion, before taking apart Linfield 6-1 over two legs. Our other game was a 3-2 win over 5th tier side Puidoux in the cup.

September 2030

I was hoping to continue gaining ground on top place in September, however Young Boys sent us crashing back the other way by thrashing us 4-1. Not quite ready to contend with the big boys it would seem. We took our revenge over Champvent in the cup, winning 3-, before Basel and St Gallen held us to consecutive 1-1 draws. We returned to our winning ways by defeating Aarau 3-0, and Wohlen 2-0, before St. Gallen held us to another draw, this time 0-0 at home.

League Standings

So, a great start to the season. We are really looking like a mid table side this year, with maybe even a slight chance of coming top 3, depending on form. Really happy with some of our wins, especially the 4-2 win over Zurich.

We opened our group with a 1-1 home draw to St Gallen. We should pick up the points over Austria Wien, and we have beaten St Gallen away from home already this season, so I'm confident of progressing from this group.

Glad this is back is that dip in form in september mainly because of zimmermans injury?

Thanks! I would like to think that our team is more than a one man team, but yes, I think so. Still it wasn't too bad, besides the loss to Young Boys. To be honest though, Zimmermann isn't a defender, so we probably would have lost anyway.

Originally Posted by B.W.G

Nice to see this back,not too bad of a start.Looks like Zimmermann getting injured caused your dip

Cheers mate! Yeah, that month got me thinking about how losing Zimmermann would effect us. We've got about another 3 years before he's definitely will go because we can't afford to resign him. Guess it's time to make the most of him.

Originally Posted by cerud

A decent start to the league. Still early in Europa; more than enough time to grab a couple of wins.

Cheers! The Europa League has been a bit weird this season actually. We went to Germany, and rightfully lost 4-1. We were outclassed, outplayed, whatever. The return game a couple of weeks later, I was hoping to maybe sntach a draw. Instead, the ref gives us 3 penalties, and we win 6-0! I mean, how does that happen? That is just ridiculous. To make matters even more hilarious, we are still last on the table, because we lost to Austria Wien.

October was a pretty bad month really. We began with consecutive losses to really put a strain on us in the Europa League, but we did regain something when we thrashed Thun 5-1. HSV were too strong for us in October, and Xamax held us to a draw, but we did end the month by knocking fellow Super League side Sion out of the cup!

November 2030

Sion got there revenge on us in the league though, but our next two games were absolute class. We trashed HSV 6-0 (thanks to 3 penalties), and defeated Grasshoppers 3-1. I decided to rest Zimmermann in the next game, and promptly lost 1-0 to Grasshoppers. After the internaitonal break, Young Boys again defeated us 3-1, before we finished the month in style, picking up two 6-1 wins.

December 2030

December began with a loss to St Gallen, which ended our hope for qualifying for the knockouts of the Europa League. We did well the rest of the month though, beating Basel 4-3, before resting Zimmermann for the final Europa League match and still winning 3-0.

League Standings

3rd place is just fantastic! Young Boys are miles in front of the competition, qualifying from their Champions League group again (This time featuring FC Bayern, Juventus and Galatasaray). Zimmermann has 32 goals in 23 appearances, and also has exactly 100 league goals now as well! We won't be able to catch Zurich or Young Boys this season, but I'm really hoping for top 3.

Didn't qualify this year, but played pretty well considering the group. I wish I didn't stuff up against Austria Wien the first time, but I guess that's football. Sometimes you can have an off day (unless your name is Sebastian Zimmermann or Iker Sola)

Pretty good year, minus the thrashing at the hands of Columbia. Happy to be sitting in 2nd and a qualification place in our group. I'm confident of beating both Greece and Slovenia to Euro 2032. Set a new highest ranking record at 40th this year as well. Pretty good year all up.

Great to see this one back! I really think selling Zimmermann might be a blessing in disguise - furthering his career to do wonders for the national team and giving Ruggell good money to develop further... (not sure how much it needs this though, but if you are saying you can't afford to keep him beyond the three years anyway, then surely some additional funds could come in handy)

Great to see this one back! I really think selling Zimmermann might be a blessing in disguise - furthering his career to do wonders for the national team and giving Ruggell good money to develop further... (not sure how much it needs this though, but if you are saying you can't afford to keep him beyond the three years anyway, then surely some additional funds could come in handy)

I do plan on selling him. He's already come to me asking to leave, and in the end I had to agree to let him go at the end of the season, so I'll be looking to sell him then

A couple of mid season games to keep fitness up. The loss to Delemont was due to all my team being away on international duty, so I only had greyed out players.

January 2031

Played our catch up game in the Swiss Cup on New Years Day, won 4-0 thanks to an Alfons Wolff hat trick.

February 2031

We had a pretty tough month in February, but still managed to pick up two wins. We played well against St Gallen, but our best performance was against Zurich where we won 2-0 thanks to Hofmann and Wolff.

March 2031

After two short months, we had a long March. We started off with a 2-0 win over Thun, before Xamax held us to a 1-1 draw. We then beat Tycoon owned 3rd tier side Therwil 3-1 after they scored early. However, we then lost 1-0 Sion to end our unbeaten streak. We returned to form by beating Grasshoppers 4-1 and Aarau 3-0, before Young Boys ended our month with a 1-0 loss. That was a really tight game, but they probably deserved the win.

League Standings

Still in third place, closing in on Zurich as well. I doubt that we'll catch Zurich because I have a feeling we'll slip up a fair bit in the run in, but I'm hoping for a top 3 finish. That would be absolutely great.

And that is why Young Boys have been the Champions of Switzerland for 8 of the past 9 seasons (9 of the past 10 if you count this season). On their day, they are infinitely better than everyone in the league.

Cheers fellas! The Young Boys result didn't do too much to moral, but it wasn't doing us any favours either seeing as we played them in the Swiss Cup final a month later. We lost that 4-0 So no retaining the Swiss Cup for me, and another double for Young Boys!

3 wins and 3 losses for April. I was pretty disappointed that we lost to Sion and Thun, though we were lucky in our games against Basel and Xamax. Zurich had too much class for us. Zimmermann was at his lethal best for us this season.

May 2031

The first two matches were great, winning the Swiss Cup semi against Winterthur and thrashing Grasshoppers, but then Young Boys came along and absolutely destroyed us 7-1. Aarau almost capitalised on our shock, but we recovered to beat Basel and get our highest ever finish in the league.

June 2031

The only match this month was against Young Boys in the Swiss Cup final, and we were humiliated again, this time losing 4-0.

League Standings

A fantastic season all up. Pity about our drop off in form later in the season, we could have contested Zurich for 2nd a bit more. The Cup final was disappointing, but I was glad to reach a second final in a row.

Stefan Ziereis YP13 - Same as Reichel. Just as it seems he is improving, something always comes along to shut him down. I get the feeling he could have been as good as Zimmermann if injuries didn't destroy his early career.

Do you think it's possible that if you perform well enough in the EL you might win a CL place eventually due to Lienchenstein's coefficient
improving?

Sadly it's not possible because Leichtenstien will only ever get 1 europa league place while they dont have a league of their own. The 1 EL place will stay fixed even if the Coefficient moves them up the table. What isnt known is whether Scarman can qualify for the CL through winning the Swiss league.

Sadly it's not possible because Leichtenstien will only ever get 1 europa league place while they dont have a league of their own. The 1 EL place will stay fixed even if the Coefficient moves them up the table. What isnt known is whether Scarman can qualify for the CL through winning the Swiss league.

I wonder if it's like a Canadian team winning the MLS (hopefully one day...). They don't get the CONCACAF Champions League spot; it goes to the next available American club. Wonder if a Leichtenstein team playing Switzerland acts that same.

Very good season, by far the club's best, from here onwards it's going to be extremely difficult to further improve on, but this challenge is all about patience!

It'll be a very difficult season ahead without Zimmermann, hopefully we'll be able to maintain a top 5 finish though. The main thing is continuing to get the the groups of the Europa League, as that gives us 1.3mil in bonuses, but the 400k per round for the qualifying.

Originally Posted by deltablue

15M from Arsenal! That's quite a big move.

Originally Posted by B.W.G

Another good season Even though you sold Zimmermann,that £15 million could be useful in the future.

Yeah, it will be great for both of us, that 15mil will be reinvested into the club.

Originally Posted by buzz2k7

You should so a zimmerman watch in this thread just to keep track of his development

I'll add him to the end of season updates, but as I only have the Swiss leagues loaded it might not be fully accurate.

Originally Posted by TheGreatTraveler

Do you think it's possible that if you perform well enough in the EL you might win a CL place eventually due to Lienchenstein's coefficient improving?

Originally Posted by ri916

Sadly it's not possible because Leichtenstien will only ever get 1 europa league place while they dont have a league of their own. The 1 EL place will stay fixed even if the Coefficient moves them up the table. What isnt known is whether Scarman can qualify for the CL through winning the Swiss league.

Originally Posted by cerud

I wonder if it's like a Canadian team winning the MLS (hopefully one day...). They don't get the CONCACAF Champions League spot; it goes to the next available American club. Wonder if a Leichtenstein team playing Switzerland acts that same.

Yeah, it's not possible unfortunately. I don't think I will qualify for the Champions League through the Swiss League either, but you never know.

Tough groups indeed, but also feasible ones - can't wait for Liechtenstein's first qualification to an international tournament. Mate - incredible choice on Liechtenstein for this challenge, it might just be one of the only ones with strong enough opposition to keep you developing strongly, whilst being very small. The thread has hugely inspired me to try something of the same, but tough to find an even remotely similar set-up. Leaning towards Faroe Islands at the moment, but feel like you'd lose good match-ups after a while, with european competitions the only chances to test against higher quality. Maybe San Marino has something of the same....

Really looking forward to seeing how this goes without Zimmermann and how much he improves by the move (though think you don't have the league loaded)

Just notices this thread and seeing as you've started playing again I'm going to have a catch up and keep following. How are your finances/facilities? Good luck!

Cheers mate! Facilities are alright, currently adequate Training, Basic Youth (being upgrade) and Limited Youth Recruitment, but the main thing that has been helping us is our Junior Coaching budget, which is at Exceptional. Finances are currently at 11mil.

Originally Posted by B.W.G

They are both quite tough groups.I wish you the best in both of them.

Cheers! I wasn't really happy with the groups, but the team should challenge near qualification for them I hope.

Originally Posted by Akkarin

Tough groups indeed, but also feasible ones - can't wait for Liechtenstein's first qualification to an international tournament. Mate - incredible choice on Liechtenstein for this challenge, it might just be one of the only ones with strong enough opposition to keep you developing strongly, whilst being very small. The thread has hugely inspired me to try something of the same, but tough to find an even remotely similar set-up. Leaning towards Faroe Islands at the moment, but feel like you'd lose good match-ups after a while, with european competitions the only chances to test against higher quality. Maybe San Marino has something of the same....

Really looking forward to seeing how this goes without Zimmermann and how much he improves by the move (though think you don't have the league loaded)

Cheers mate! I think the other set up closest to this would be the San Marino side in the Italian leagues, though I think you would automatically get better youth because of it being based in Italy. Zimmermann has haurt us a little bit, but we're actually not doing that bad without him! Schneider has stepped up massively and is really helping filling the gap. Not doing as good as last year, but still not being threatened with relegation or a really low place.

Not the best pre-season against the big clubs, but I thrashed my two feeder clubs.

July 2031

Greta star tot the season, defeating Croatian club Zadar 7-2 over two games, and starting off our tie against Latvian side Metalurgs with a 4-1 win. The league started with a win and a loss.

August 2031

Two wins, a draw and a loss in the league, as well as two tie wins in the Europa League and a thrashing in the Swiss Cup. It was a great month without too much incident. Schneider has really been picking up his form for Zimmermann's departure as well.

September 2031

September started with a 8-1 thrashing in the cup, followed by winning our first group game in the Europa League.. From there, we won another cup game and picked up 4 points in the league.

League Standings

Great start, with 14 points in 8 games. Young Boys are showing off this season, with 8 win out of 8. I guess that's what happens when you outspend everyone in the league (they spent 32 mil this transfer window, while selling 12mil of players)